The present invention relates to an electronic music apparatus capable of efficiently reproducing music-related content included in a composite music file having a plurality of types of music-related content included together therein as a single file, a method for reproducing such a composite music file, and a computer program for reproduction of a composite music file. Note that the term “electronic music apparatus” is used herein to mean every conceivable electronic equipment, such as electronic musical instruments, automatic performance apparatus, audio reproduction apparatus, effecters, automatic music composition apparatus, musical score creation/display apparatus and computers having some type of music or sound reproducing software, which have music-related reproduction/display functions.
Generally, examples of music-related content (hereinafter called “music content”) include various types of data, such as MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) music piece data, musical score data, still image data, setting information (e.g., registration data), sound data (audible waveform sample data) and the like, and each such data is distributed as separate or independent music content data. Also, for reproduction/display of such music content data, particular software or apparatus functions corresponding to the types of the data are selectively used. For example, MIDI music piece data are reproduced by sequence software or sequencer function, musical score data are displayed by musical score display software or musical score display function, image data are displayed by image display software or image display function, registration data are taken in or input by automatic take-in software or take-in function, and so on. Namely, it has been conventional to reproduce/display various types of music content by starting up particular software or functions corresponding to the types of music content.
Because, for each of various music-related software or the like, the types of data or content corresponding to the software or the like are determined in advance, any file comprising content usable by the software or the like can be displayed using a predetermined icon, or can be displayed in such a manner that only the corresponding data usable by the software or the like are visible to a user.
Heretofore, there has also been known a technique capable of processing a plurality of types of music content during the course of execution of one application software. According to the technique, typically, a plurality of types of music software are incorporated into one application software by plug-in, and, when there has arisen a need to reproduce or display a particular type of music content during the course of execution of the application software, plug-in software corresponding to the particular type of music content is stated up. With the known technique, each of the various types of music content, usable by the various types of music software, exists and is managed as a separate file.
Nowadays, personal computers and the Internet are being used widely, and there have been great demands for emergence of a composite music file having a plurality of types of music content incorporated together therein as a single file and emergence of integrated software capable of handling (i.e., reproducing/displaying) such a composite music file, in order to meet a variety of needs of the users and pursue further multi-functionality and ease of use. However, neither such a composite music file nor integrated software capable of handling the composite music file has emerged to date. Besides, there has emerged no full-fledged integrated software capable of reproducing/displaying a composite music file as mentioned above.
If such a composite music file has only one kind of extension (e.g., “.cxx”) attached to the name of the file, then it is impossible for the user to see what types of music content the composite music file includes. To allow the user to see what types of music content the composite music file includes, it is necessary to provide a different extension per combination of the music content types included in the composite music file. For example, a plurality of different extensions may be provided by allocating appropriate numeric characters to the locations of “xx” in the extension (“.cxx”). Further, the file may be made easier to visually identify, by allocating a different icon to each of the different extensions. However, because a multiplicity of combinations of music content types are possible, associating different extensions and different icons with the individual combinations would undesirably result in a huge number of the extensions or icons, increased difficulty for the user to make full or efficient use of the huge number of the extensions or icons, and hence more troublesome management by a computer.
In stead of allowing the structural contents (i.e., substance: throughout the specification, this term “contents” should not be confused with the term “content”) of a composite music file, which may include a plurality of types of music content in diversified combinations, to be identified via different extensions, the user can actually open the composite music file to view the structural contents and thereby identify what types of music content are included in the composite music file. However, because, nowadays, most of the music content is supplied to interested users in encrypted form in order to protect copyrights of the music content, the contents of the music content can not be ascertained prior to decryption of the music content. The composite music file has to be subjected to a decryption process based on a public key and other information, which tends to be a cumbersome and time-consuming process. Because the cumbersome decryption process is needed to open the encrypted composite music file and view the file's structural contents and then identify what types of music content are included in the file, the above-mentioned approach is inconvenient.
Further, if content downloaded via the Internet or the like comprises such a composite music file, the user can not readily figure out what type of application software should be used to reproduce or process otherwise the content, which is also very inconvenient.